Throughout the world, there is increasing concern over the deteriorating quality of the air, particularly in and around large metropolitan areas. It has been found that much of the air pollution which exists, particularly in large cities, is caused by hydrocarbon emissions from the internal combustion engines used in automobiles and trucks. The problem is extremely serious in cities such as Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.A., Mexico City, Mexico, and Tokyo, Japan, to name a few.
Even where pollution from internal combustion engines is not currently a significant problem the huge quantities of petroleum deposits consumed by automobiles and trucks, is rapidly depleting the known oil reserves of the world. Petroleum deposits are currently used as the backbone ingredients for ever increasing plastics manufacturing, synthetic fibers used in clothing, and many other products. To use these finite reserves of petroleum deposits as a source of fuel for automobiles and trucks, is widely considered an inefficient and wasteful use of this valuable resource.
As a result of the foregoing, intensive research and experimentation has been undertaken to develop an energy efficient electric car. Typically, electric cars are operated from rechargeable storage batteries, which drive direct current drive motors attached to the drive wheels of the car. Lightweight, compact cars, particularly suited for short trip operation in metropolitan areas, have been developed. A primary shortcoming of electric cars developed in the past, however, is the relatively limited range of operation which exists between battery charging cycles. When a typical lead-acid battery is used, the battery charging cycle is generally a matter of hours (preferably, overnight) after the batteries have reached a sufficient level of discharge so that the car no longer can be operated. For many electric cars, the operating range is less than one hundred miles before the batteries require recharging.
As the number of batteries required to operate the car is increased, the weight of the car increases in direct proportion, thereby reducing the useful load capacity of the car in that same proportion. As a result, simply adding more batteries to obtain greater range is not an ideal solution.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an electric car which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art listed above, which is efficient in operation, and which has substantially increased range of operation between battery charging cycles.